Looter
Looters are among the weakest enemies in the entire game, they first appear at the start of the game as drunk disorganized rabble who decides to wreck havoc around the countryside. Likewise, they are some of the most common, similar to forest and mountain bandits. Armed with cheap blades, clubs and stones, they only pose a threat to the weakest, most under-protected player. Appearance Looters dress very lightly, wearing the weakest clothes and boots. Sometimes they will be wearing no armor at all, making them completely defenseless. Some looters wear cheap caps for minimum protection to their heads. Tactics The Looters have two basic tactics: throw stones from afar until attacked or out of ammo and/or then charge and swarm. Some will throw stones at you again if you move out of range for melee combat for a while. Looters always will just try to swarm you to try to knock you out by hitting you repeatedly. Looters who hold throwing stones will stay back from the rest of the group and attempt to pummel you with their weak projectiles. Looters generally are found in groups of 8-18 men, although there have been accounts of many more, sometimes forty. It is suggested that the average size of groups depends upon the size of yours and your renown. As a commonly available weak troop, looters are often used to train the party and can be engaged confidently even without support troops. Because they are not mounted and have relatively low map speed, they are easy to catch. Once engaged, looters highlight the power a horse gives a combatant, allowing mounted troops to move freely in and out of reach of their weapons. The rocks they throw tend to be inaccurate and inflict extremely limited damage even to unarmored troops. However looters can also demonstrate some of the potential weaknesses of mounted troops. If they can stop the horse, a cluster can bring down a horseman. The better armor the horseman has, the longer their incapacitation will take. Alone on foot, looters present somewhat more of a problem as it becomes important to control how many looters are in range. Lone players on foot with low athletics should avoid engaging large groups of looters as they will likely be swarmed and overcome, much like the stopped horseman. When soloing looters, the least risk tactic is to employ a horse and ranged weapon. Simply ride into range, stop, fire, then move when they get too close. If you run out of ammo, go back and reload from the supply chest. A slightly more risky tactic is to engage them in melee from horseback. Ideally you never stop moving. The primary risk is that you get stopped by misjudging your course and then swarmed. As a melee attack you will be exposed to both missile and melee attacks. The primary advantage of a melee engagement is speed; combat will be decided far more quickly. Development Looters can only be recruited from prisoners. This can be done if you have taken them as prisoner and recruit through the camp menu, though this way will inflict a morale penalty on your party and a good percentage will flee from your army during the first night. The second, and more successful way, is to recruit these from prisoners held by your enemies. When Looters gain enough experience, they can be upgraded to forest or mountain bandits. Since forest bandits upgrade to Swadian Recruits and mountain bandits upgrade to Rhodok Tribesmen, this gives you a rare chance to determine the flavor of troops they can upgrade to. Without upgrades, they are practically useless, just like in a fight against them. With Fire & sword Almost nothing has changed about these rough bunches except their clothes and weapons. They are somewhat less common to encounter however and should not be confused with the much more dangerous Rebels. They are moderately stronger than Warband looters, due to the fact that they use somewhat stronger weapons, such as carpenter axes and pitchforks. Category:Bandits